Wednesday, March 13, 2013

GIS3015 Cartographic Skills Student Spotlight- Typography Methods Lab

Typography Methods

This weeks laboratory exercise was designed to reinforce the ideas of typography discussed in class. The assignment included correctly labeling and placing text on a map of one of the Keys in southern Florida.

About Nick:Nick has been in the Army since 2002 and also has experience working with the Navy. He is currently working towards his master's degree in cyber security (slowly, but surely!) Nick has a background in business, but works in GIS. He hopes that this course work, along with the certification, will help him formalize his knowledge from street smarts to industry smarts. Nick you are well on your way! Congratulations! (Note: The photo posted is of Mr. Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI, sent to us by Nick. He was recently at a conference where we was able to snap the picture. Thanks for sharing!)

What we like: Nicholas did a terrific job with the typography and labels this week. His labeling methods were clear and his font color and size choices were exactly what we were looking for this week. He also made the map his own by adding a special touch in the title and header. Great map Nick!

"This week I worked with the rules of typography, using Adobe Illustrator. The map of Marathon, Florida and the surrounding Florida Key islands was labeled using Adobe Illustrator typography tools. In addition to adding text labels, I also used color to both direct the reader’s eyes to important areas of the map and make it visually exciting. Using the zoom functions, I worked from upper right to lower left to configure each text label, map feature, and icon. The legend had to be made independently. I put the legend items into their own group, so I could work with them independently. This map took about 8 hours to make in Adobe Illustrator."